172 households to benefit from skills acquisition – Enugu State Govt.

No fewer than 172 households in Enugu State would be empowered with skills acquisition under the social investment programme of the state government.
The Commissioner for Poverty Reduction, Obinna Mbaeke, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Enugu on Wednesday.
Mbaeke said that beneficiaries would be drawn from the poorest communities in six local government areas of the state in line with World Bank guidelines.
“In line with the state government policy of fairness and equity, two local government areas were chosen from each senatorial district. In Enugu East senatorial zone, we have Isiuzo and Nkanu East Local Government Areas; in Enugu West, we have Aninri and Awgu Local Government Areas; Enugu North has Igbo-etiti and Nsukka Local Government Areas.
“These are the poorest areas in the state,” the commissioner said.
Mbaeke said that the state government followed the guidelines of a poverty map prepared by the World Bank in choosing the beneficiaries.
According to him, the state monitoring team would be on ground to monitor the process of selection, adding that every target community would be fully involved.
“We have set up a committee that is going to supervise the selection of the beneficiaries to ensure that the process is fair to capture only the poorest of the poor in these communities. Each household selected will give us an adult that will be trained in a preferred skill for a period of one year,” he said.

The commissioner said that a monthly stipend of N5,000 would be paid to the beneficiaries as transport allowance while N80,000 would be given to them at graduation to assist them in buying tools.
“This way, they will assist their households to exit from poverty and that is the essence of the programme,” he said adding that the programme would start before the end of February.